Abstract
This essay will briefly review the economic reforms introduced in China after 1978, analyze the performance of Chinese agriculture and industry following the reforms, and examine prospective changes in the future. In regard to the individual topics, the experience of European socialist countries and, in particular, that of Hungary will be noted, based largely on the writings of the author.1
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B. Balassa, ‘The Hungarian Economic Reform, 1968–81,’ Banca Nazionale del Lavoroy Quarterly Review, XXXIV (1981) pp. 163–84 and Essay 12 in Bela Balassa, Change and Challenge in the World Economy, pp. 216–81; B. Balassa, ‘Reforming the New Economic Mechanism in Hungary,’ Journal of Comparative Economics, VII (1983) pp. 253–66 and Essay 13 in Change and Challenge in the World Economy, pp. 282–309 (London: Macmillan, 1985); and Essays 13 and 14 in this volume.
In the 1979–83 period, for which data are available, the area devoted to grains was reduced by 4 percent, that under other crops increased by 20 percent, while the total sown area declined by 3 percent. E. Lim et al., China: Long Term Development Issues and Options (Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985) Annex 2, p. 11.
H. Ma, New Strategy for China’s Economy (Beijing: New World Press, 1983), Table 1 and ‘Communique on the Statistics of 1985 Economic and Social Development,’ State Statistical Bureau, 28 February 1986.
N. R. Lardy, ‘Prospects and Some Policy Problems of Agricultural Development in China,’ American Journal of Agricultural Economics, LXVIII (1986) pp. 165–82.
A. R. Khan, and E. Lee, Agrarian Policies and Institutions in China after Mao (Bangkok: International Labour Organization, Asian Employment Programme, 1983) p. 52.
B. Balassa, ‘Economic Reform in China,’ Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Quarterly Review, XXXV (1982), pp. 307–33 and Essay 14 in Change and Challenge in the World Economy (London: Macmillan, 1986) pp. 310–36.
W. Byrd, ‘Economic Reform and Efficiency in Chinese State-Owned Industry’ (Washington, DC; World Bank, 1982) mimeo, Table 2.
Ma, New Strategy for China’s Economy, Table 1 and T. G. Rawski, ‘Productivity, Incentives, and Reform in China’s Industrial Sector,’ paper prepared for the Annual Meetings of the Association for Asian Studies, held in Washington, DC on 23 March 1984, mimeo.
G. Tidrick, ‘Productivity Growth and Technological Change in Chinese Industry,’ World Bank Staff Working Paper No. 761 (Washington, DC, 1986) Table 2.
According to an informed observer, there is a distinction between enterprises directly under the central government and local enterprises (including provincial enterprises, county enterprises, etc.), a distinction between key enterprises and non-key enterprises, and even distinctions between ministerial, departmental and board categories. ‘All these different enterprises were treated differently in terms of funds, materials, labor (including technical personnel), product marketing, foreign-directed economic activities, raw materials prices, and so on.’ F. Dong, ‘Questions on Increasing the Vitality of Enterprises under the System of Ownership by the Whole People’ (Beijing: Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1985) mimeo.
F. Byrd, ‘The Role and Impact of Markets,’ in G. Tidrick and C. Jiyan (eds), China’s Industrial Reform (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987) p. 45.
P. K. Chang, and S. K. Lin, ‘China’s Modernization: Stability, Efficiency, and the Price Mechanism,’ in M. Dutta (ed.), Asia-Pacific Economies: Promises and Challenges (Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, 1987) pp. 103–18.
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© 1989 Bela Balassa
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Balassa, B. (1989). China’s Economic Reforms in a Comparative Perspective. In: New Directions in the World Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10588-5_15
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